Finally finished Disneyland!

I just finished a book titled ‘Disneyland: Inside Story’ by Randy Bright, a Disneyland employee since 1959, once the VP of Concept Development. The book is almost 30 years old, but was a great read. It chronicled the inception of the idea in Walt’s mind and follows him through the planning, construction and future planning of his second park in Florida. The last chapter follows Walt’s death and the challenges and triumphs the Disney team faced upon the sudden death of their leader. Walt’s idea of Disneyland came after taking his daughter’s, Diane and Sharon, on their weekly trip to the park to ride the carousel in Los Angeles. He wanted to create a park where the entire family, not just children, could enjoy themselves without the “carny” atmosphere that was typical for pretty much all amusement parks of the time. Disney had in his mind what he wanted to create and that is the place where all of his creations began. Disneyland isn’t loved by all though. Many feel that it is a candy coated version of a false reality where “there is always a happy ending”. Walt had earthen berms built around Disneyland so that guests in the park would not be jolted back into reality by the busy highways and activity beyond the park. He wanted his guests to enjoy their day within the fantasyland that his imagination had created. Many Hollywood stars as well as world leaders have and continue to visit Disneyland when in the area. Maybe they need a dose of happy endings as well! Today, we have supposed reality shows abounding on every channel on TV. Entertainment of every sort seems to blast as many holes in the earthen berms of our temporary escape from reality. The atrocities and crimes that are happening in our world are self evident; we don’t need a reminder via the entertainment industry for an hour or two that reinforces what we already know we will face the minute we leave the theater. Disneyland was only the beginning. Walt wanted a place where people could enjoy a respite from the troubles of the day on an ongoing basis. He and a few Disney employees would begin a plan called ‘Project X’. This is what we know today as Epcot. Walt had originally wanted Epcot, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, to be a residential and commercial city that was designed in such a way that would show what a city could be like that was planned through proper design, instead of the dirty crime laden cities that are found in most of our larger cities in the U.S. Obviously this part of Walt’s dream was never realized. Epcot became simply a blueprint of that original idea. Whether or not the original idea of Epcot could have ever been realized, the dream of creating something that is better than most of the cities that all of us live in was idealistic. They say that Walt had a childlike imagination. He didn’t know the meaning of the word “can’t”. One of his favorite phrases was, “Isn’t it fun to do the impossible?” All it takes is a thought such as “what if” or “I wonder” to spark an idea that with hard work and determination can result in Disneyland, the Ipad, the light bulb and thousands of other things that we enjoy today. Many many people told Walt that his ideas were impossible, but this never stopped him. He seemed to have an insatiable desire to go on to the next thing, to push the limits of technology and art so that we today can enjoy the fruits of his labor and imagination. As Walt once said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” I challenge you to have the courage to pursue them!